montreal city weblog

Turcot plans: change in the wind?

2009-11-07T23:55:00.000-05:00

Jacob Larsen notes on Spacing a possible change in the political winds blowing around the Turcot project. Also there's a planned demo tomorrow starting at 1:30 pm at Lionel-Groulx to continue the struggle for a better solution for that part of the city.

Hospital vaccinated top donors

2009-11-07T14:03:00.000-05:00

The top donors at the Jewish General Hospital have already received their flu shots and the Gazette seems uncertain whether to consider this a scandal or not.

Tremblay, Harel, Bergeron in depth

2009-11-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

Mayor Tremblay is now ex officio also mayor of Ville-Marie borough; a long piece on Louise Harel on the days before the election; another longish piece on Richard Bergeron over the same few days.

How to deal with fake abduction claims

2009-11-07T13:19:00.000-05:00

The abduction panic in the West Island last week was a fake. The stories were made up and questions are now being asked how to deal with this kind of thing, but nobody mentions that in our society practically the most important thing, the pinnacle of existence, is to get on TV and become famous: how can you fault a young teenager for noticing that some other kid got a shortcut to TV by claiming to have nearly been grabbed, and to copy the effect for themselves?

Le Medley to close at end of year

2009-11-07T12:53:00.000-05:00

Longtime local venue Le Medley is to close at the end of this year, probably to become condos, and leaving the Ligue nationale d'improvisation looking for new digs.

Snowdon metro attacker sentenced

2009-11-07T12:39:00.000-05:00

The man who carried out a brutal attack on five people in Snowdon metro in 2005 has been given a sentence of two years after his original sentence in the community was overturned as too light. One of his victims suffers from permanent brain damage and disfigurement.

Cournoyer killer pleads not guilty

2009-11-07T12:29:00.001-05:00

Carpenter Claude Larouche has pleaded not guilty in the murder of Natasha Cournoyer. Her employment with Corrections Canada had at first suggested some motive for her murder, but there was no connection between her and Larouche or with her job. La Presse digs into Larouche's history, including a chilling tale of his attempt to kidnap a seven-year-old girl in 2003 and an almost as chilling account of the night of the murder, during which Larouche nearly grabbed a jogger before turning his attention to the woman walking toward her car in the Place Laval parking lot. That he seemed like a regular guy in daily life is no reassurance.

Des anglos unilingues de Mile End

2009-11-06T17:55:00.001-05:00

Une femme trouve bien d'anglophones à Mile End qui ne parlent pas français. (Au sujet des anglos à Mile End, ce n'est pas une affaire des dix dernières années. C'est les irlandais de Mile End qui ont construit la magnifique église au coin de Saint-Urbain et Saint-Viateur au milieu de la première guerre mondiale.)

Ville cherche DG beau et gentil

2009-11-06T16:29:00.000-05:00

La Ville cherche un nouveau directeur général; dans l'histoire du comité exécutif, Claude Dauphin restera le président.

Meurtre de Natasha Cournoyer: suspect arrêté

2009-11-06T16:25:00.000-05:00

Un suspect a été arrêté et est accusé de la meurtre de Natasha Cournoyer en octobre. Claude Larouche n'a pas connu Cournoyer et a été rattrapé à cause des traces de son ADN sur la victime. En addition, il est connu aux policiers.

La grippe touche tout le monde, malade ou en santé

2009-11-06T15:57:00.005-05:00

Les médecins ne sont pas contents du système de vaccination contre la grippe; des plaintes ont suivi les nouvelles que GlaxoSmithKine, la compagnie qui fait le vaccin, a vacciné des travailleurs et leurs familles avant tout autre groupe en priorité; les enfants et les ados ne sont pas les bienvenus comme visiteurs dans les hôpitaux pour le moment; la triste histoire des dernières minutes d'une femme qui est mort de la grippe récemment en Montérégie.

Les cliniques de vaccination fonctionnent assez bien (note à la Gazette: "skedded" n'est pas un mot en anglais non-journalistique) mais l'attente peut être longue. (Je me demande: les gens très riches, où se sont-ils vaccinés? Est-ce que c'est possible de payer sa vaccination dans une clinique privée? Je n'ai rien lu sur ce sujet.)

À peu près 14 cliniques spécialisées doivent ouvrir lundi pour répondre uniquement aux grippeux: tous les détails vont être révélés sur Pandémie Québec.

Pierre Foglia nous explique pourquoi il sera vacciné.

Another Italian café attacked

2009-11-05T09:11:00.000-05:00

A fourth Italian café has been attacked with a molotov cocktail in Saint-Michel. Besides not enjoying mayhem, I don't welcome anything that interferes with the proper dispensation of espresso anywhere in town.

Another then-and-now festival

2009-11-05T08:58:00.001-05:00

Guillaume Saint-Jean has been doing another run of then-and-now photos, which you can look at on Spacing or on his Flickr set. Recent views include Mont-Royal metro station 1979-2009 and some scenes nearby that will be familiar to Plateau habitués, as well as views of the largely unchanged façades along de la Commune.

Contest for Champ de Mars metro

2009-11-05T08:50:00.000-05:00

The city has launched a contest seeking ideas to improve the setting of Champ-de-Mars metro station, left for most of its existence in a sort of urban limbo when the Ville-Marie autoroute was cut through right beside it.

Projet benefits from bigger presence

2009-11-05T08:27:00.001-05:00

Projet Montréal has seen its fortunes go up as it gets a higher allowance now that it has 14 councillors elected, after spending relatively little on its campaign, while Vision Montreal may be in debt after its campaign expenses are totted up.

Election notes: Anglos stay home

2009-11-05T08:26:00.001-05:00

Henry Aubin ponders anglophone and allophone apathy during elections, and mentions a point exposited in detail here on Spacing: a pre-merger Montreal would have elected Louise Harel as mayor by a comfortable margin.

(If indeed it's anglos and allos who stay home, then Louise Harel is likely wrong in her claim that, had more people voted, she would've won. But there's no way to test this claim for sure.)

Ottawa won't give Montreal time to tidy

2009-11-05T08:17:00.001-05:00

Ottawa is refusing to help Montreal by adjusting its deadlines for the infrastructure money it's doling out: City Hall has decided not to accord major new contracts till its methods of doing this are cleaned up, but Ottawa says "too bad, the rules is the rules." We should remember this come the next federal election.

(In any case, if the city takes any of the federal dosh, it will be obliged to erect giant billboards praising the Conservative party, which it would be no bad thing to contrive to avoid.)

Laferriere wins Prix Médicis

2009-11-04T22:54:00.000-05:00

Dany Laferrière has won the Prix Médicis for his recent book L'énigme du retour. It rather outshines his recent Blue Metropolis award...

Commentaries on electoral stuff

2009-11-04T22:21:00.002-05:00

Yves Boisvert writes feelingly in defence of journalists' right to investigate and criticize politicians without being accused of holding witch hunts. Rima Elkouri has some thoughts on evidence of bad judgement and how it influences political outcomes.

Homeless: a chronic problem

2009-11-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

A new report on homelessness in Quebec (¾ of them are in Montreal) has been presented to the National Assembly. I can predict precisely what will change as a result: nothing.

City speeds up H1N1 shots

2009-11-04T19:24:00.002-05:00

Montreal is speeding up flu vaccinations as a woman in her forties merely afflicted with mild asthma died Tuesday in the Montérégie. The health minister has also confessed to a mistake made when prisoners in Valleyfield got their shots before presumably more deserving people (although keeping the virus from spreading under prison conditions sounds like a good idea to me).

I received a card in my mailbox today telling me where to get vaccinated, although as I'm in the least endangered category I have to wait till next month and the card notes that the rules may well have changed by then.

(It occurred to me while typing this: yes, H1N1 flu can be dangerous, but this whole clusterfuck begins to feel like a practice drill so the government will have worked out a better system in case something like SARS or worse crops up again and the masses really do have to be immunized stat.)

Drapeau sidekick dies

2009-11-04T19:09:00.000-05:00

Jean Drapeau's longtime sidekick Lawrence Hanigan has died at 84.

City's phone system on the edge

2009-11-04T09:09:00.000-05:00

City Hall's expensive new telephone system is unstable and could crash any time. Telus replaced Bell as its provider last year and has not, going by this article, exactly excelled in replacing the 17,000 phones the city needs. Notably, the IP phones are not compatible with 911...

SQ arrests in construction investigation

2009-11-04T09:03:00.001-05:00

The Sûreté du Québec has been rounding people up in its investigation into criminal activity in the construction industry, specifically in this case the Hells Angels; the Quebec Liberals continue to maintain that a full inquiry into the collusion of the Mafia with the industry is not needed.

Police return to labour issues

2009-11-04T08:49:00.000-05:00

With the election settled, now the police are returning to the unsettled labour issues they have with the city. Mayor Tremblay had promised no layoffs, but 130 temporary police are coming to the end of their contracts and the city has to decide whether to let them go or hire them permanently.